Lost & Found Tombstone

An elderly woman in Okemos, MI moved to a nursing home, and an auction company was hired to clear out her home and sell the contents.

One of the items found by the auctioneers was a 5 foot tall marble tombstone with the name of Peter J. Weller on the front. Apparently, the woman's family didn't know the origin of the stone, saying they used the back side of the stone to make fudge.

With some encouragement from a former Okemos, MI resident, now living in California, that saw the stone on the auctioneers online photos, the stone was donated to a local Lansing, MI Historic Cemetery Society.

With a bit of research they learned that Mr. Weller was originally buried in Lansing's Oak Park Cemetery. Oak Park outgrew their land and in 1875 disinterred everyone in the cemetery and relocated them to the new Mt. Hope Cemetery. During this move is when Mr. Weller's stone went missing. It was also determined that because there was no surviving descendants the Historic Society was allowed to take responsibility for the stone.

The Historic Society found where Peter's unmarked grave was located, cleaned the stone, and placed it on his grave next to his two daughters.

172 years after his death and 146 years after Peter Weller's headstone went missing, a dedication ceremony, with fudge, was held September 26, 2021 at the Mt. Hope Cemetery.